Runway

Van Nuys Airport, one of the busiest general aviation centers in the country, will receive an $18.4-million federal grant to reconstruct and replace its main runway, government officials announced Friday. The Federal Aviation Administration funds will pay for rehabilitating the entire 8,000-foot runway, which has several key sections that have become severely worn and cracked. “This funding will help improve Van Nuys Airport's infrastructure and will keep aircraft moving safely and efficiently,” said U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood.

Women in daringly short skirts and skyscraper heels. Bouncers in black suits and silver sunglasses at the entrance to a luxe show tent. But this wasn’t Tuileries de Paris, the famed French gardens that host fall and spring fashion shows. It was Rosemont Middle School. Waitresses served chocolate-covered strawberries and cupcakes topped with interlocking Cs, the logo of the renowned French fashion house Chanel, as the school played host Monday evening to its first-ever student fashion show.

BURBANK — Passengers and crew aboard the 9:30 a.m. Southwest flight came upon an unusual sight Tuesday as they landed at Bob Hope Airport: dozens of people in bright yellow T-shirts walking down the middle of Runway 826. They were searching for “foreign object debris,” otherwise known as trash — a potentially costly pest when sucked into jet engines. A plastic bag, screw, loose pebble or stick can cause hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of damage to aircraft engines or tires.

After a summer of pastel-colored fashions and sizzling-hot beach wear, Newport-Mesa students are getting ready to go back to school. While the early birds may have finished their shopping weeks ago, South Coast Plaza was bustling this weekend with parents and children shopping for the latest fall styles. To help some choose the right fashions, a back-to-school fashion show featuring clothes from Gymboree, Beach Works, Oilily and other stores was held twice on Sunday as part of the Festival of Children.

By a roughly 2 to 1 margin, residents in the tri-city region favor a new terminal at Bob Hope Airport that is further from the runway, according to a recent poll that also revealed a major knowledge gap about just how old the existing facility is. The survey, conducted by Goodwin Simon Strategic Research mid-February, found that among those polled in Burbank, Glendale, Pasadena and portions of Los Angeles near the airfield, 67% favored a...

BOB HOPE AIRPORT ? The Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority unanimously approved a runway rehabilitation project on Monday, awarding a $10.3-million contract to Sully Miller Contracting Co. to break ground on the project this summer. The average life of a runway is about 10 years, airport spokesman Victor Gill said. It's been about that long since Bob Hope's were repaved, airport authority Commissioner Charlie Lombardo said. "We definitely need repaving, especially at the beginning of each runway.

A draft report from the Federal Aviation Administration has bared the long-standing safety issue of Bob Hope Airport's passenger terminal and its proximity to the runway. Federal aviation officials have long held that the terminal is too close to the runway, a finding that in 1986 prompted the agency to prohibit planes from taking off to the east. An airport spokesman said planes taking off to the west are safely airborne well before they near the terminal. But the latest iteration of the proximity issue came after an incident in Aprilin which two planes flew dangerously close to each other above the airfield.

Karen S. Kim BURBANK -- A program geared at improving runway safety at the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport has received a grant of nearly $2 million from the Federal Aviation Administration, officials announced Friday. The money will be used to construct a special safety surface, an Engineered Material Arresting System, at the end of the airport's 6,032-foot-long, east-west Runway 8. "We always feel good about $2 million," Airport Authority Spokesman Victor Gill said.

Ben Godar The response was real, but the crash Wednesday at the Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport was just a simulation. The Glendale Fire Department and more than a dozen other agencies participated in the full-scale emergency drill, which is required by the Federal Aviation Administration at least once every three years. In the morning scenario, a Boeing 737 had its landing gear collapse and veered off the runway. A fire in the cockpit and a fuel spill were thrown in to make things even more interesting.

BURBANK — The Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority unanimously approved plans Tuesday for a $14.8-million extension of Taxiway D. By extending the main artery of Bob Hope Airport, officials say they are addressing one of the airports main safety concerns. “This project is very significant for us and very significant for the traveling public,” airport authority Executive Director Dios Marrero said. The project will extend Taxiway D from the southern edge of Runway 15-33 — the main takeoff runway — to the western end of Runway 8-26, the airport’s main landing path.

Van Nuys Airport, one of the busiest general aviation centers in the country, will receive an $18.4-million federal grant to reconstruct and replace its main runway, government officials announced Friday. The Federal Aviation Administration funds will pay for rehabilitating the entire 8,000-foot runway, which has several key sections that have become severely worn and cracked. “This funding will help improve Van Nuys Airport's infrastructure and will keep aircraft moving safely and efficiently,” said U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood.

By a roughly 2 to 1 margin, residents in the tri-city region favor a new terminal at Bob Hope Airport that is further from the runway, according to a recent poll that also revealed a major knowledge gap about just how old the existing facility is. The survey, conducted by Goodwin Simon Strategic Research mid-February, found that among those polled in Burbank, Glendale, Pasadena and portions of Los Angeles near the airfield, 67% favored a...

Ever since M*A*S*H went off the air, I've been a little disillusioned with TV. That's not to say I don't watch, or like, certain TV shows: “30 Rock” and “Modern Family” stand out. While channel surfing, I will stop and view random mind-numbing programs with a measure of unabashed shame and guilt. “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” comes to mind. But only because I like Bruce Jenner. “Project Runway” because my wife likes to watch it. “Hillbilly Handfishin'” because, well, damn, they pull 40-pound catfish out of muddy rivers with their hands.

Women in daringly short skirts and skyscraper heels. Bouncers in black suits and silver sunglasses at the entrance to a luxe show tent. But this wasn’t Tuileries de Paris, the famed French gardens that host fall and spring fashion shows. It was Rosemont Middle School. Waitresses served chocolate-covered strawberries and cupcakes topped with interlocking Cs, the logo of the renowned French fashion house Chanel, as the school played host Monday evening to its first-ever student fashion show.

A draft report from the Federal Aviation Administration has bared the long-standing safety issue of Bob Hope Airport's passenger terminal and its proximity to the runway. Federal aviation officials have long held that the terminal is too close to the runway, a finding that in 1986 prompted the agency to prohibit planes from taking off to the east. An airport spokesman said planes taking off to the west are safely airborne well before they near the terminal. But the latest iteration of the proximity issue came after an incident in Aprilin which two planes flew dangerously close to each other above the airfield.

A little black dog made it into and out of Bob Hope Airport quickly Thursday morning — without passing through security. Officials said a member of the airport's maintenance crew spotted the small dog with long black fur racing along near the runway about 7 a.m. The dog was seen near the airport's fuel field, on the northeast side of the runway. Within minutes, the dog had squeezed under a fence or escaped when a gate was opened. It bolted onto San Fernando Road, according to airport spokeswoman Lucy Burghdorf.

AIRPORT DISTRICT — Bob Hope Airport officials Monday agreed to spend nearly $1 million on refurbishing the airfield, the first stage of a $13-million modernization effort. The Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority unanimously agreed to a series of contracts for the runway shoulder project for $995,920. The 555-acre airport, which last year served 4.6 million passengers and housed about 45 private jets, has two paved runways measuring 5,800 to 6,800 feet long.

Federal safety officials on Friday opened an investigation into the near-collision of a commercial jetliner and a small private plane at the intersection of two runways at Bob Hope Airport. The National Transportation Safety Board said in an advisory that a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737-700 carrying 124 passengers and crew from Oakland came within 200 feet of the Cessna 172 while landing on Runway 8 of the airport. The private plane about 11 a.m. Monday was executing a “touch and go,” a practice maneuver in which an aircraft lands briefly on the runway before accelerating and becoming airborne again.

About 75 community members and war veterans fanned out across Bob Hope Airport, searching for loose debris that pose a safety threat to aircraft. Dressed in black T-shirts, volunteers and airport staff walked one mile shoulder-to-shoulder in horizontal lines. Airport officials invited a dozen war veterans from the three Burbank-Glendale-Pasadena Airport Authority member cities to lead walkers down the runway. Bob Hope’s Federal Security Director Brian Cahill, who recently returned from Baghdad in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, along with Bob Gilliland, who flew the first test flight of Lockheed’s SR-71 Blackbird Dec. 22, 1964, and served in the U.S. Air Force in the Korean War, led the group.

BURBANK — Passengers and crew aboard the 9:30 a.m. Southwest flight came upon an unusual sight Tuesday as they landed at Bob Hope Airport: dozens of people in bright yellow T-shirts walking down the middle of Runway 826. They were searching for “foreign object debris,” otherwise known as trash — a potentially costly pest when sucked into jet engines. A plastic bag, screw, loose pebble or stick can cause hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of damage to aircraft engines or tires.